Click to play videoNew Delhi: As the sentencing in the 1993 Mumbai Blasts case draws to a close, questions are being asked about the implementation of the Srikrishna Commission Report.
The report which inquired in the communal riots that took place just a few months before the bombings, has not been implemented, and many of those who co-coordinated the carnage that took over 900 lives have been let off scot-free.
Says editor, Hindustan, Sarfaroz Aarzoo, “There can be no greater form of selective justice that on the one hand you punish the bombers. But those who perpetrated the riots have not been brought to justice.”
Over 900 people were killed in the two rounds of rioting in December 1992 and in January 1993,
In fact the Srikrishna Report named several prominent figures who had co- coordinated the carnage.
"They include the former Jt Comm. R D Tyagi, Madhukar Sarpotdar the then MLA, the Mayor of Mumbai and Bal Thackeray,” says Counsel for Riot Victims, Srikrishna Commission, Niloufer Bhagwat.
But successive governments have let the report gather dust.
- As only one of the 31 policemen who allegedly participated in the riots has been suspended.
- Sub Inspector Nikhil Kapse, found guilty of killing six innocent Muslims was promoted.
- The Army had allegedly found unlicensed guns in the possession the then Shiv Sena MLA Madhukar Sarpotdar, who could have been charged under TADA, but never was.
"You see the law needs hard evidence not presumption, or extrapolation, and its very difficult to get that,” says former Jt CP, Mumbai, Y C Pawar.
But activists argue saying that it's not evidence but the lack of political will that has let the guilty slip through setting a dangerous precedent.
Says Communalism combat, Teesta Setalvad, “The message we are sending is very dangerous. The fact that there is no equality in our justice system, and those who can perpetrate these mass murders can get away is really shocking.”
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